International results vary

Apart from some financial results, the international and local ICT markets were quiet last week.

From an international results perspective, excellent, very good or good figures came from eBay, EMC, Google, Intel, Logitech, Sony Ericsson and Tata Consultancy Services. Satisfactory or mediocre numbers were posted by IBM, Nokia, Philips Electronics, SAP, Seagate Technology and Yahoo, and losses were reported by AMD, Corel, LG Electronics and Motorola.

* Excellent interim figures from DataPro, with revenue and profit both up well over 100%.
* Good annual numbers from Datacentrix, with revenue up 16% and profit up over 50%.
* Good maiden interim numbers from TeleMasters.
* Positive trading updates from Sekunjalo, Spescom and TeleMasters.
* The JSE de-listed the shares of CCI Holdings, ShawCell and Top Info Technology, companies that some time ago either went insolvent or ceased trading.
* The 30% investment in Altech's subsidiary, Alcom Matomo, by Platina Venture Holdings, a BEE company.
* Fidentia's curators announced Software Futures is up for sale, with bids needing to be submitted by the end of this month.

* Gamtel of Gambia was sold off to an international consortium.
* France Telecom acquired a mobile and Internet licence in Central African Republic.
* Telekom Malaysia sold off its 60% interest in Telekom Networks Malawi.
* Mark Wilson, MD of Fujitsu Siemens Computers South Africa, was appointed MD of the company's EMEA region.

Global mobile phone shipments grew 12% in Q107, the slowest quarterly growth rate for two years, says Strategy Analytics.

Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners

* AT&T withdrew from the Telecom Italia talks.
* Carlyle Group dropped its offer for Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering.
* The resignation of Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of Siemens.
* A positive result announcement from JDA Software.
* Negative result warnings from Fair Isaac, LightPath Technologies, Netlist and Printronix.
* Job loss announcements from Lenovo and Overland Storage.
* Planned IPOs from EMC's VMware division and Kenya's AccessKenya.
* IPO filings from Airvana, a maker of software and hardware for mobile broadband services; Qiao Xing Mobile Communication, a manufacturer of mobile handsets; and SoundBite Communications, a provider of automated voice-messaging products.
* A good IPO by MetroPCS Communications, a provider of wireless communications services. This is the first IPO of 2007 to break the $1 billion mark.

* The private equity buy-out of Bell Canada.

* Global mobile phone shipments grew 12% in Q107, the slowest quarterly growth rate for two years, says Strategy Analytics. Nokia still dominated the market, followed by Motorola and Samsung.
* Worldwide shipments of PCs in Q107 grew 8.9% to 62.7 million units, says Gartner. HP still dominated, followed by Dell and Acer.

* JSE All share index: Up 0.8% (highest-ever weekend close)
* Nasdaq: Up 1.4% (highest weekend close for over five years)
* Top SA share movements: Cape Empowerment Trust (+16.7%), CompuClearing (+9.2%), Cyberhost (-16.7%), Datacentrix (+9.3%), Jasco (-8.9%), SAB&T Ubuntu (-29.5%), Silverbridge (+25.4%), Stella Vista (+37.5%) and Vestor (+132%)
* Top international share movements: All American Semiconductor (-29.7%), AXS-One (+41.8%), Exabyte (-25%), JDA Software (+21.1%), Merisel (+33.3%), RadView (+33.3%), Rural Cellular (+26.7%) and WJ Communications (+20.6%)

African Business has published Africa's Top 200 Companies listing. From a technology perspective, MTN is at number six and Orascom Telecom (Egypt) at number eight. From an IT/electronics perspective, Reunert is at number 49. There are no IT/electronics companies listed from Africa outside of SA.

Due to the coming long weekend, my next column will be published on 7 May and will cover a two-week period.